Membership type

[Bananaman]

Hi 

I've been billed £53 for membership with printed magazine but only require digital membership,  can my bill be changed to £35 please?

Thanks

[Captain Colonial]

As has been covered many times before and for the benefit of anyone else wishing to switch membership types, no, the invoices cannot be changed, they can only be paid, cancelled or deleted.

 

In your case @Bananaman your current membership package with posted printed magazines expires on 22 March.  Once it expires, log in and go to the Store tab at the top, then choose WSCC Membership, then the electronic magazines package at £35

 

Why wait until it expires?  Because they are two different membership packages and they do not interact with each other so if you bought it now, they would overlap each other and the electronic one would expire in February 2026, shortchanging you on your existing membership by one month.

 

Of course, if you wish to give the club extra money to get less, I’m sure they would not object, but I doubt that’s the case!

 

 

[Ian Kinder (Bagpuss) - Joint Peak District AO]

3 minutes ago, Captain Colonial said:

As has been covered many times before and for the benefit of anyone else wishing to switch membership types, no, the invoices cannot be changed, they can only be paid, cancelled or deleted.

 

In your case @Bananaman your current membership package with posted printed magazines expires on 22 March.  Once it expires, log in and go to the Store tab at the top, then choose WSCC Membership, then the electronic magazines package at £35

 

Why wait until it expires?  Because they are two different membership packages and do not interact with each other, so it you bought it now, they would overlap, it would expire in February 2026 and shortchange you on your current membership by one month.

 

Of course, if you wish to give the club extra money to get less, I’m sure they would not object, but I doubt that’s the case!

Thanks for the great explanation @Captain Colonial Does the wording of the renewal e-mail need improvement to stop similar questions and to state the clear good advise you've posted here?

[Captain Colonial]

2 hours ago, Ian Kinder (Bagpuss) - Joint Peak District AO said:

Thanks for the great explanation @Captain Colonial Does the wording of the renewal e-mail need improvement to stop similar questions and to state the clear good advise you've posted here?

 

You make an excellent and valid point, my friend - thank you.

 

This is the revised wording of the reminder email that goes out 30 days prior to membership expiry - the bit that is underlined and in bold does go out to the receiver that way in the email:

 

"Hello!

 

This is an automated email to advise you that your annual WSCC Membership will expire in 30 days from now.  You may have already received a renewal email to this effect.

 

Renewing online is very easy!

 

1) Log in on the WSCC forums (you have to be logged in or you won't be able to renew - look in the upper right corner of the forums screen)

 

2) On the blue bar under the club logo, choose Store, then Manage Purchases

 

3) Your membership package will appear with the words, "There is a pending renewal invoice for this product." with "Pay Now" next to it - click on "Pay Now" and follow the instructions.

 

We now offer two memberships options.  If your current membership includes posted printed copies of the club magazine, you can opt for a membership package where you can download digital copies of Westfield World from the forums instead.  If you’d prefer to do this in future, please wait until after your current membership period expires first!  Once it does, just go to the Store tab at the top of the forums and select “WSCC Membership with Electronic Magazine” instead at annual price of £35.  (Both membership levels include a posted printed copy of the annual WSCC calendar.)

 

(If you forget to renew, you'll get another email when your membership expires in 30 days from now.)

 

Thanks for your support of the club - safe and happy blatting to you!"

 

The email that goes out once a membership expires looks very similar.

 

If I'm not around and a member comes online asking for this information, I'd be appreciative if they were pointed to this post so I don't have to type it out again if possible.

 

DISCLAIMER

 

The forum software is a capricious mistress at the best of times.  The way these reminder emails should work is that the text above is sent out 30 days prior to membership expiry.  The way it sometimes decides to work is to send it out more than 30 days in advance (I've seen up to 90 days) at which point the renewal invoice has not yet automatically been generated, leaving the renewing member befuddled in their search for a non-existent invoice.  Also, it's entirely possible that the member's email service provider doesn't like the club very much and immediately buries club emails into member email spam or bin folders.  Just sayin' that all is not necessarily smooth sailing - see my disclaimer for more details.

 

 

[p k]

I note you recommend waiting until your membership runs out to change the mag/no mag setting but having done this by accident in 2022 (member since 2017) I renewed a couple of weeks late,  this generated a new membership pack, I dont know how long it takes for a unpaid member to become a new member  and I dont know how automatically a new member pack is generated but it may be worth investigation.    

[Captain Colonial]

34 minutes ago, p k said:

I note you recommend waiting until your membership runs out to change the mag/no mag setting but having done this by accident in 2022 (member since 2017) I renewed a couple of weeks late,  this generated a new membership pack, I dont know how long it takes for a unpaid member to become a new member  and I dont know how automatically a new member pack is generated but it may be worth investigation.    

That would be a matter for @Mark Redpath - WSCC Membership Secretary but generally speaking it’s a very rare problem, thankfully.

[Stuart]

I renewed as a digital member the day after my standard membership ran out with no bother. I now have both a lapsed and current membership in my account, but my profile still says I've been a continuous member since 2001